Mixed thoughts on beach trash program

SWAMPSCOTT – Selectman Glenn Kessler was outnumbered during the discussion of the Phillips Beach carry-in/carry-out pilot program. He said it had to go. Kessler said he had heard reports of beachgoers burying their trash in the sand to avoid taking it home.?I don?t see as effective utilization,” he said. “We pay a lot of money for taxes and for services ? there needs to be more trash barrel and recycling bins at the beaches.”He was supported by Phillips Beach neighbors Cheryl and Paul Levinson, who said the excess trash at the beach, the result of the bins being removed, was unfair to taxpayers, beachgoers and wildlife alike.But the four other board members and Gino Cresta, director of the Department of Public Works, who has continued to pick up the trash on the beach, agreed the program just needed more education to be successful.?This is the right thing to do in this day in age,” said Cresta.Vice Chairman Barry Greenfield said the key was early signage, together with implementation at all the beaches, for consistency next summer. “It?s never going to be perfect because there are lazy people,” said Greenfield.Selectman John Callahan said that, if anything, the request for bigger trash barrels by beachgoers who scoffed at the program was enough to predict that the return of the barrels would result in more household trash at the beach.Selectman Matt Strauss said the removal of barrels improved the state of cleanliness at the beach, which he said before was a “pigsty.”Though the selectmen gave their opinions, there?s no guarantee whether the program will or will not continue. With Sullivan?s declaration that the decision is an operational issue, the program is outside the board?s jurisdiction and therefore does not require a vote of approval.